tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30450115923780364412019-02-15T12:41:53.260-08:00à bas le cielEisel Mazardhttps://plus.google.com/118222702679452306115noreply@blogger.comBlogger359125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3045011592378036441.post-81676321444150328512019-02-12T18:29:00.002-08:002019-02-12T18:29:15.156-08:00Don't make someone else's stupidity an excuse for your own.
I would have preferred to say, "Don't make someone else's stupidity a pretext for your own". But hey. I have to compromise with the parlance of our times.Eisel Mazardhttps://plus.google.com/118222702679452306115noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3045011592378036441.post-67846189785628489712019-02-10T06:26:00.003-08:002019-02-10T06:26:50.631-08:00[反共产主义] Day two.
And then I wake up the next morning and do it again, at a slightly higher level of ability (a slightly higher level of familiarity with the vocabulary, etc.).
Written before 6:00 AM, local time.
Eisel Mazardhttps://plus.google.com/118222702679452306115noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3045011592378036441.post-19266054223292900662019-02-09T20:54:00.004-08:002019-02-09T20:54:53.700-08:00[反共产主义] Working from (and against) Chinese propaganda.Eisel Mazardhttps://plus.google.com/118222702679452306115noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3045011592378036441.post-87941355004022486422019-02-09T02:06:00.001-08:002019-02-09T02:06:31.788-08:002:00 AM Chinese handwriting practice
一個我中文筆跡的例子. No, not a paid commercial for the brand of pen. I only switched back to reading and writing the Taiwanese written standard ("traditional Chinese") quite recently (my school was in Kunming, remember, where we used simplified characters).Eisel Mazardhttps://plus.google.com/118222702679452306115noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3045011592378036441.post-18115236628477799422019-02-03T15:23:00.001-08:002019-02-03T15:25:08.967-08:00Vegan Gains Threatens a Lawsuit, Dodges Obvious Moral Questions.
[Richard wrote in threatening to sue me, threatening to have my channel deleted, and so on: you can see his messages on youtube, here. The text below is the final message I sent in correspondence to him: he never replied. He has still never stated a single example of me telling a lie about him, nor making an untrue criminal allegation against him (all of the criminal behavior I know about is Eisel Mazardhttps://plus.google.com/118222702679452306115noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3045011592378036441.post-61211961661402815262019-01-30T15:41:00.000-08:002019-01-30T15:41:12.036-08:00Another phrase coined on my youtube channel?
I never even attempted to keep count of how many phrases I've coined —that I've APPARENTLY coined— in passing on my youtube channel. In most cases, I said/wrote them in passing, and then googled around to check if I had been quoting someone without realizing it, etc.
In this case… "Hollow Tourism".Eisel Mazardhttps://plus.google.com/118222702679452306115noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3045011592378036441.post-7339590774992582982019-01-17T18:53:00.003-08:002019-01-18T17:30:40.497-08:00…my point is, rather, "I'm asking the right questions".﻿
Q: "[how] do you see creating fine art and music?" This is the part few people suspect: I'm extremely self-critical, and I really do openly discuss (also) the extent to which even learning languages and doing humanitarian work is a waste of time (I think that, e.g., a military veteran could also talk about both the ways in which being in the army is edifying, and also the ways in which it Eisel Mazardhttps://plus.google.com/118222702679452306115noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3045011592378036441.post-64819056460246660602019-01-03T15:05:00.001-08:002019-01-18T17:32:29.147-08:00Highlights of my latest attempt to convince "Ask Yourself" to be LESS RACIST.
"Ask Yourself" is the name of a (vegan) youtuber who has been accused of racism many times; after discussing his views at length with him directly (and cordially) I made many attempts to encourage him to address the allegations/rumors against him —and this is partly because I know, directly, that they are not baseless allegations/rumors (he has made many, many statements that outsiders correctlyEisel Mazardhttps://plus.google.com/118222702679452306115noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3045011592378036441.post-36399126419431389542019-01-01T03:53:00.000-08:002019-01-01T03:53:27.255-08:00Vegan Activism and/or/as Humanitarian Work.[Reply to a question from a viewer.]
I can make a video in response to this question, but mebbe you should reply to a few further emails.
Please note that if/when I make a video in reply I will render you anonymous (so feel free to mention the particular job-qualifications/education you have here in this email: I will not repeat the details in a video response to it… I'll make them vague Eisel Mazardhttps://plus.google.com/118222702679452306115noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3045011592378036441.post-48774045550278408792018-12-11T14:10:00.002-08:002018-12-11T14:10:54.603-08:00"Not everyone can be lucky (nor beautiful!), but everyone can be virtuous".Putting this headline on today's youtube video reminded me of one of the first sentences I ever "wrote" in Chinese (back when I didn't know the language at all: just using google translate and a dictionary, with assistance from a native speaker to fix the result).
"Not everyone can be lucky, not everyone can be beautiful", vs. "Not everyone can have luck, but everyone can have virtue". AndEisel Mazardhttps://plus.google.com/118222702679452306115noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3045011592378036441.post-58249440563783842172018-12-02T00:20:00.001-08:002018-12-02T00:20:48.317-08:00As Dominoes tend to fall in one and the same direction…Many of you have known me over the internet for 4 years by now (some for 2 years, and so on). Things have only gotten worse. They're still getting worse. There's no reason to interpret that sequence of dominoes as indicating that things will suddenly get better.
Eisel Mazardhttps://plus.google.com/118222702679452306115noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3045011592378036441.post-7062975516790329942018-11-28T21:29:00.002-08:002018-11-28T21:52:50.610-08:00Writing to an atheist podcast about the problem of replacing Christmas.
Hi, I'm a nihilistic atheist (I reject much more than just monotheism) and I'm writing with a topic suggestion for your consideration. I can volunteer to help, but I assume the help would be unwanted.*
The topic is: how do we try to NOT celebrate Christmas with our children, but to provide something better / different for our children.
* (My youtube channel has 3.2 million total views… but Eisel Mazardhttps://plus.google.com/118222702679452306115noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3045011592378036441.post-87093701031751005312018-11-18T21:39:00.000-08:002018-11-18T21:39:27.016-08:00The most dangerous academic discipline became boring.
Dept. of Misc. Political Dissent.Eisel Mazardhttps://plus.google.com/118222702679452306115noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3045011592378036441.post-9297947496097474852018-11-03T07:02:00.000-07:002018-12-05T21:46:09.705-08:00Sarcasm for Social Change. :-/Apparently nobody has made a t-shirt that reads, "Sarcasm for social change" —so I have to do it.
Eisel Mazardhttps://plus.google.com/118222702679452306115noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3045011592378036441.post-30679198277068277092018-07-29T22:24:00.000-07:002018-07-30T07:50:46.850-07:00A Funny Story From My Time as a Denizen of the Chinese Language School.
The tale of a doomed gym romance, in the distinctive setting of Keats Language School (of Kunming, China).
我住在一个语言学校。这个地方有好处和坏处。所有的学生是成人，但是我们没有成人的责任，当我们住在这里的时候，我们没有工作，没有家庭，没有朋友或者敌人。一些的学生感觉这个地方看起来像一个监。很少学生试试找新的爱，因为在这里他们没有真的家。
我有一点点开心，但是我唯一的娱乐是我们的健身房。在这里，一个很帅的外国人和一个女私人教练试试约会。在开始的时候，她对他没有兴趣。他假装他不明白所有的机器，因为他想问她，“你可以帮助我吗？”
他甚至表现得像他不明白怎么做卧推。如果我没自己看这个情况，我不相信。一次，他参加她的操课。所有的她的一般学生是老女人，和她们有一个竞争。
因为他Eisel Mazardhttps://plus.google.com/118222702679452306115noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3045011592378036441.post-29374294687251218822018-06-19T20:01:00.002-07:002018-06-19T20:01:39.042-07:00人人有责Eisel Mazardhttps://plus.google.com/118222702679452306115noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3045011592378036441.post-64003450863780016202018-06-11T11:33:00.002-07:002018-06-12T16:35:55.805-07:00Sources on Aristotle's Political Context & Career.
(This short post implicitly relates to a youtube video on the same topic, to be found on my channel, here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLZEkgohG7k7r2KOvbCAIKvulmFOp1kRKc)
You can get both articles from JSTOR.
(1) "Aristotle's Paradox of Monarchy and the Biographical Tradition." J. Miller, 1998, in: History of Political Thought, Vol. 19, No. 4,
(2) The "extreme" position (i.e., Eisel Mazardhttps://plus.google.com/118222702679452306115noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3045011592378036441.post-71840764423549466382018-06-05T22:53:00.003-07:002018-06-05T22:53:58.868-07:00About Peer Review (Again)
The original cartoon is attributed to "Sheneman", and can be found here: http://www.nj.com/opinion/index.ssf/2014/07/sheneman_cartoon_bridge_out.html
Eisel Mazardhttps://plus.google.com/118222702679452306115noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3045011592378036441.post-62190933252297598002018-04-04T15:00:00.000-07:002018-04-04T15:04:49.341-07:00Giving advice to a suicidal (long-time) viewer.[Question from a viewer.]Hi Eisel. I'm a 17 year old from [an English-speaking country] and have been a fan of your YouTube channel for maybe a year and a half. I'm writing because I believe we share many similar viewpoints across different topics (though over my time watching your channel I have found many things I've disagreed with) and am hoping that maybe you can offer some kind of advice.I'mEisel Mazardhttps://plus.google.com/118222702679452306115noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3045011592378036441.post-17604584302118294142018-03-29T23:55:00.000-07:002018-07-25T10:17:27.818-07:00Published in a Chinese Newspaper! "小康社会”有什么意思？This "student composition" of mine was published in a "normal" Chinese newspaper (meaning a newspaper created for native speakers of Chinese, and, yes, printed on paper). https://www.secretchina.com/news/gb/2018/04/02/854514.html
在最近发布的文件中，我们常常可以看见“小康社会”这四个字。在习近平中国共产党第十九次全国代表大会的讲座，他说了“小康”多少次？我算了下，这个词出现了十八次，其中在题目中出现了两次以上。
其实在习近平报告的第一段已经看到这样的官话：“中国共产党第十九次全国代表大会，是在全面建成小康社会决胜阶段…
决胜全面建成小康社会…团结带领全国Eisel Mazardhttps://plus.google.com/118222702679452306115noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3045011592378036441.post-80037949365913452982018-02-17T13:39:00.002-08:002018-02-17T13:39:30.576-08:00My Chinese handwriting (on the meaning of "pirate")
Obviously, very rapid, very sloppy writing (on a chalkboard) —and yet legible enough for the students. This was in 德宏, of course.Eisel Mazardhttps://plus.google.com/118222702679452306115noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3045011592378036441.post-70481634322852497462018-02-03T00:49:00.000-08:002018-02-03T00:49:12.090-08:00First Nations Languages (A Very Strange Job Application)
To the teachers and directors of _________________,
Many years ago I decided to devote the rest of my life to First Nations languages: specifically, I wanted to work in indigenous education (and in the political processes related to avoiding the extinction of indigenous languages in Canada).
I went to First Nations University of Canada and I enrolled in Algonquian languages (studying Cree Eisel Mazardhttps://plus.google.com/118222702679452306115noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3045011592378036441.post-86237708594576219662018-01-12T04:17:00.000-08:002018-01-12T04:17:03.915-08:00My work on Buddhism: how is it perceived by (non-scholarly) white Buddhists?
This is a link from 2016 I stumbled upon (when googling my own name to find the link to an article that I know I uploaded somewhere).
http://newbuddhist.com/discussion/24451/articles-on-buddhism-by-a-former-pali-scholar
You see the religious mentality at work here: one contributor to this website is saying that my articles (and videos) about Buddhism are "honest scholarship" and raise Eisel Mazardhttps://plus.google.com/118222702679452306115noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3045011592378036441.post-31577535553992119622018-01-11T06:18:00.000-08:002018-01-11T06:18:25.812-08:00I finally discarded the jacket I got married in.
A certain black jacket that you may have seen in my photos and videos many times has finally been put into a garbage bag.
This was, in fact, a Canadian military jacket (sometimes recognized as such by veterans and government officials, in various places around the world) that I had a tailor modify in Vientiane (to make it slimmer). The original cut of the cloth was very bulky, to be worn overEisel Mazardhttps://plus.google.com/118222702679452306115noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3045011592378036441.post-14347601575282602152017-11-21T20:07:00.001-08:002017-11-21T20:07:44.062-08:00My former Cree Teacher Advocates for Cree Street-Signs.Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCvJuFE0POM
Solomon Ratt was one of my professors at FNU, and I talked about this issue with him (street-signs, no-smoking-signs, etc.) ALL THE TIME. Part of my argument was to point out that the Canadian government had signage in Chinese for Chinese neighborhoods ("Chinatown" streets)… but why didn't we ever see Cree/Ojibwe on street signs? I have no Eisel Mazardhttps://plus.google.com/118222702679452306115noreply@blogger.com